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Danica Patrick is the most popular target for the media this week at Daytona. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

NASCAR: Daytona 500 media crowds bigger for Danica than Dale Jr.? Yup

February 16, 2012

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After the antics of Super Bowl media day, don't you want something like that for the Daytona 500? I mean, shouldn't there have been some reporter wearing a Goodyear racing tire for a hat, or worse--a toga?

This isn't to say there's something wrong with the annual occurrence, only maybe that we've been spoiled by the antics in America's biggest sport.

What might we call the oddest moment of Daytona 500 media day? Was it the Dutch photographer--wearing a bowler's shirt emblazoned with the name “Dutchtona”--handing three-time Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart a pair of clogs?

Or was it the size of the media crowds around Danica Patrick versus the size of those following Dale Earnhardt Jr., the sport's official “Most Popular Driver”?

I can't say I'm shocked. How many people are going to get a buzz out of discussions about radiator-opening sizes or pressures or whether the teams will get the requested 50 psi for the cooling versus the 25 psi proposed by NASCAR?

Since NASCAR, like most professional sports, is personality--as well as performance--driven, Danica's first Sprint Cup start was the biggest story of the day. And, because of a points exchange (a.k.a. technical partnership), she is virtually guaranteed to start the 54th running of the Great American Race.

Her first full-time year in NASCAR, after two years sharing time in the Izod IndyCar Series and Nationwide Series, created the biggest buzz on Thursday and brought out the biggest crowds of writers and photographers.

Junior did show up sporting a large growth of beard, but he'd worn a beard in the off-season before. As far as the media was concerned, Danica beat the beard.

How'd they do that? The logistics of media day

Dale Earnhardt Jr. may no longer be NASCAR's most popular driver. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Props to the folks who run NASCAR public relations for managing to get so many drivers in front of so many media members on Thursday. You can compare Daytona 500 media day with one of those sushi places where the food goes around the patrons on a conveyer belt. In NASCAR, it's the drivers who move around the media.

In addition to the trade-show-like areas (which I call kissing booths) for the print media, there are individual stage areas set up for television and radio stations that are not NASCAR partners.

Surrounding the print-media worktables were television sets for TNT, NASCAR.com, Speed TV and ESPN. Sirius NASCAR radio had a broadcast area next to ESPN. If you were seated where most of the print media was, you could watch the drivers walk around to each feeding station.

Toward the back of the big white tent, which housed a high-roller hospitality area called the Fifth Turn, were individual studios so drivers could be videoed for what you may see as driver-only features.

With each driver's public-relations team keeping an eye on the clock, they moved through the tent in a timely manner.